Brian Kelly Quotations

Whenever something bad happens on tour we treat ourselves.

But, it's just what we deal with playing corner in this league.

If we are going to get the national recognition for our program we have to play some of these games. And we have to win some of them. There is no point in playing these games if we don't want to win.

I thought our first day went really well. We are at a point now where we are not going to take a step back just because we lost our quarterback from last year. We needed to hit the ground running and I was pleased with how these young quarterbacks prepared themselves.

Our kids have been working out and we're ready to play without Jerry Seymour, as hard as it may be.

...Our kids are going to be quite excited. They came here to play this kind of schedule.

We encourage everyone to renew early because it allows us to be more effective and efficient in doing our seating and parking assignments. The more we have in early, the quicker we can start the assignment process.

We need to keep our head down and keep digging. We'll just ride this wave out and take it to Green Bay.

There are three guys that I will meet with and get a better feel on about their academic situation.

This time of year, you go onto the field and know that you can go and fight for a championship. We don't have any preconceived notions out there. We're just trying to get to the playoffs. Every year, if you go out there and battle and play hard, you have an opportunity to go to the Super Bowl.

When you play teams at 1 o'clock, in the heat, that's not used to being in this weather, you should be able to close teams out and win games.

The good part is we only have to play Penn State once, and not 10 times,

We all are going to outplay and outperform what we do and it's up to the powers that be to recognize that and acknowledge that.

This was the best situation for me and that's why I chose to stay.

We wanted a chance to get to see our young backs and get a sense of who we are when the contact starts. Overall, we saw some good plays on both sides of the field which, as a head coach at the end of the day, is what you want to see.

We have depth and a balance of experienced players competing for playing time. We have upped the competitive level of everyone else out there.

At that point in my career, I could have moved,

Every year there are guys that get overlooked, ... It happens year after year. It will happen until they stop doing the voting process. It is what it is. I just want to play at that level.

(Defensive coordinator) Tom Bradley did a great job matching up his backer against our true freshman tailback in pressure schemes. We could take care of the big on big, but we had no answer for Shaw.

Anthony has always been a guy who has had speed, but we think he's a guy who can really come in and help us this year. It was unfortunate that we had to play him last year, but we think he gives us a real good second option right now.

A number of them were African Americans that had been in that culture of violence, and they're taught to look away, ... You don't want anything to do with it. Get out of there. You don't say anything to anybody.

They don't put themselves in a position to give up big plays, although I think Coach Ross would be the first to admit that they're probably not as efficient on offense as he would like at this point in the season. It's a team that's obviously looking for its first win. They played Boston College and UConn and took Iowa State right down to the wire and Baylor. Obviously, they feel like if they're going to win a game it has to be against Central.

There were a lot of ineffective plays that he turned into big plays.

It's certainly not in the job description, ... The good thing is I've been a head coach for 15 years. A first-year head coach could have been a wreck.

It's critical for these young quarterbacks to get a feel for the game. Last year, we didn't have our quarterbacks live because we knew what we had in Kent Smith. This year, we need to find out what we have at that position.

It's very important for this team to get off to a good start, ... This is a big game on the road. We have to get some confidence, get a big win, come back home and prepare to get another.

If Jerry clears himself and we're able to reinstate him, that's great. But our program has moved beyond Jerry Seymour. We're too fragile as a program to hold back and wait for one individual.

But I lost (quarterback) Curt Anes in the first round of the (2001 Division II) playoffs -- the most prolific player in the history of Grand Valley -- when I coached there and we won the national championship with a wide receiver (at quarterback). I am just that arrogant or that stupid to think we can do the same thing without Jerry Seymour.

For our offense, that is just a normal part of it - we want to get the ball deep. That was a good decision by Brian and it really is nice to see a player Bryan Anderson's size running down the seam against a linebacker.